The present invention generally relates to a system and method for delivering dynamic data to an Internet Web browser. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for creating web pages that continually update data on a real-time basis without requiring refreshment of the web page and/or installment of any additional software on the users target computer (e.g. no requirement to download any applet, program or compiled code).
Prior to the widespread use of the Internet, companies interested in distributing information over a network to a large number of users were typically forced to invest in private networks. Disadvantages of these networks included the expense to install and maintain such a network. In addition, in some cases, more than one private network had to be installed to handle multiple data requirements.
With the advent of the Internet and the more easily-accessible World Wide Web (xe2x80x9cWebxe2x80x9d) that is overlaid on it, many of the above disadvantages have been reduced or eliminated. However, new problems have arisen. For example, although installing costly private networks is no longer necessary to receive the required information, the data distributors may have little to rely on when creating the applications that display this data, in terms of xe2x80x9csoftware toolkitsxe2x80x9d. Their choices are typically limited to using the baseline protocols included in the user""s Web Browser such as HTTP or creating stand-alone applications. Each of these approaches may have an associated set of problems such as: (a) xe2x80x9cpurexe2x80x9d HTTP protocol has an advantage of being accessible by the widest range of browser and operating system platforms, as well as most firewalls but, on the other hand, Web pages that use only HTTP protocol typically cannot display dynamic data without constantly refreshing the entire contents of the embedded frame; (b) creating a stand-alone application that is hosted on an end-users computer (either within a browser or as a separate application) and that can handle the dynamic nature of the data required but may require installation of the application on the target computer; and (c) an IT Department may have to be convinced that the delivery of data into the customer""s network would not adversely affect other enterprise-critical applications and systems.
The present invention provides for a system and method for the delivery of dynamic data to a web page. In one embodiment, the present invention uses a standard HTTP protocol; coexists with firewalls without the need for non-standard ports being open and dedicated to the data retrieval; requires no software to install and/or download (i.e. no requirement to access the user""s hard drive); and involves cross-platform support.
In another embodiment, the present invention comprises three tiers: a xe2x80x9ccontributionxe2x80x9d tier, a xe2x80x9cdistributionxe2x80x9d tier; and a xe2x80x9cdisplayxe2x80x9d tier. The xe2x80x9ccontributionxe2x80x9d tier accepts requests from the end-user and publishes updates of the data content to a xe2x80x9cdistribution tierxe2x80x9d. The xe2x80x9cdistributionxe2x80x9d tier then accepts updates from the contribution tier and distributes it to the client application. This client application may include, but is not limited to, a web browser or a stand-alone application that accepts data from the distribution tier over the Internet. Subsequently, the xe2x80x9cdisplay tierxe2x80x9d receives continuous information from the distribution tier and displays it to the end-user as desired. In accordance with this embodiment, these three tiers deliver data to an end-users web-page or stand-alone application without requiring additional software and/or configuration.
One example of implementing the method and system of the present invention is illustrated with the following. It is understood that this is simply an illustration of the present invention and that the present invention is not limited to the following hardware and software. xe2x80x9cDS2000xe2x80x9d, which is a server application created by PFS TraderTools LLC, supplies data from a variety of real-time and calculated sources from an xe2x80x9cAPI.xe2x80x9d. Other examples of server applications that may be used instead of xe2x80x9cDS2000xe2x80x9d include xe2x80x9cSmartSocketsxe2x80x9d by Talarian or xe2x80x9cLogicScopexe2x80x9d by LogicScope Realisations Limited 2000. In this example, DS2000 is the xe2x80x9ccontributionxe2x80x9d data tier and IIS is a Web server marketed by Microsoft(copyright). This web server, coupled with a DLL (dynamic link library) is part of the xe2x80x9cdistribution tierxe2x80x9d. In one embodiment, the DLL is an ISAPI extension DLL. In addition, a programmer""s toolkit is employed that facilitates building web pages that communicate with the distribution tier (e.g. facilitates data to be requested and displayed in web pages on Web browsers that support JavaScript). The programmer""s toolkit supplies the functionality of the xe2x80x9cdisplayxe2x80x9d tier.